Abstract
BackgroundCurrent malaria control strategies have cut down the malaria burden in many endemic areas, however the emergence and rapid spread of insecticide and drug resistance undermine the success of these efforts. There is growing concern that malaria eradication will not be achieved without the introduction of novel control tools. One approach that has been developed in the last few years is based on house screening to reduce indoor mosquito vector densities and consequently decrease malaria transmission. Here screening and trapping were combined in one tool to control mosquito populations. The trap does not require an insecticide or even an attractant, yet it effectively collects incoming resistant and susceptible mosquitoes and kills them.ResultsPerformance of the funnel entry trap was tested in low and high malaria vector density areas. An overall reduction of 70 to 80% of mosquito density was seen in both. Species and molecular forms of Anopheles gambiae identification indicated no variation in the number of Anopheles arabiensis and the molecular forms of An. gambiae between houses and traps. Mosquitoes collected in the traps and in houses were highly resistant to pyrethroids (0.9 kdr-based mechanism).ConclusionThere is a global consensus that new intervention tools are needed to cross the last miles in malaria elimination/eradication. The funnel entry trap showed excellent promise in suppressing mosquito densities even in area of high insecticide resistance. It requires no chemicals and is self-operated.
Highlights
Current malaria control strategies have cut down the malaria burden in many endemic areas, the emergence and rapid spread of insecticide and drug resistance undermine the success of these efforts
Resistance to pyrethroids has emerged in anopheline mosquitoes and its rapid spread is a major threat to vector control
Resistance to the alternative insecticides approved for public health use, such as organophosphates, carbamates and organochlorine, has been reported in the principal malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae [1,2,3,4]
Summary
Current malaria control strategies have cut down the malaria burden in many endemic areas, the emergence and rapid spread of insecticide and drug resistance undermine the success of these efforts. One approach that has been developed in the last few years is based on house screening to reduce indoor mosquito vector densities and decrease malaria transmission. Several studies in the last few years have shown that vector densities in houses could be reduced by up to 80% by screening houses [6,7,8,9] or by planting repellent plants around houses [5], and that anaemia could be significantly reduced in children as well [10] Though this approach has great potential, it results in repelling mosquitoes from houses but does not kill them. A better approach may be by denying access of mosquitoes indoors, but by killing blood-seeking (and resting site-seeking) mosquitoes
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